Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Linda Deavers (61, Fishers, Indiana) was found guilty of 10 counts of wire
fraud and 5 counts of money laundering. Deavers faces a maximum penalty
of 20 years in federal prison for each count of wire fraud and 10 years
in federal prison for each count of money laundering.
Deavers was indicted in September 2012. She was arrested in October
2013, after flying into California from Hong Kong. The jury returned the
verdict on July 11, 2014. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for
October 2, 2014.
According to evidence presented at trial, Deavers devised an
investment fraud scheme that used an entity by the name of Angel Annie
Humanitarian Trust, LLC. As part of her pitch to investors, Deavers
represented that the entity was a Section 501(c)(3) charitable
organization, that she had connections to trading programs in Europe
that would generate large rates of returns and that she had been
successful in investing in such trading programs previously. She
represented that any money invested with her and Angel Annie
Humanitarian would be invested in such trading programs overseas. None
of those representations were true. Deavers collected more than $5.2
million from investors located in Florida.
After returning approximately $1.8 million to investors, Deavers used
most of the remaining $3.4 million in proceeds to fund her lifestyle,
in Indiana and Europe, and to pay various expenses for herself and her
family, including a $1 million deposit on a mansion. To lull her
investors into a false sense of security, Deavers used e-mail and Skype
to provide the investors with a series of false excuses as to why she
had not been able to successfully invest their money. Even after Deavers
had spent the last of the funds from her victims, for several years,
she continued to falsely claim that she was working on investments for
them.

An indictment was unsealed earlier today charging individuals with
bank fraud and conspiracy arising from a scheme to take advantage of
plans by an all-girls high school in Hempstead, New York, to expand its
campus and build an athletic field for students.
The defendants, two couples, including a real estate attorney and the
officer of a real property corporation, were arrested earlier today by
special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and will be
arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge William
D. Wall at the United States Courthouse in Central Islip, New York. If
convicted, each defendant faces up to 30 years of imprisonment, fines,
and the forfeiture of $539,000 in allegedly illegal profits arising from
the scheme.
The charges and arrests were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United
States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and George
Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of
Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI).
As set forth in the indictment, defendants Sofia Atias, Joseph Atias,
and Nicholas Pellegrini conspired to defraud Bank of America of over
half a million dollars by fraudulently avoiding foreclosure on a home
through a fraudulent “short sale” of the property to a straw buyer —
defendant and co-conspirator Paula Berckhoff, also known as “Paula
Pellegrini” — and then profiting from the home’s re-sale or “flip” to
Sacred Heart Academy, a Catholic all-girls high school that paid the
conspirators almost $1 million for the property to accomplish
long-sought plans to improve and expand its facilities.
Early in 2011, defendant Sophia Atias had defaulted on some $750,000
in a mortgage and home equity loan secured by a home she owned at 83
Cathedral Avenue, Hempstead, New York, which sat adjacent to the high
school. As Bank of America began foreclosure proceedings, defendants
Sophia Atias, Joseph Atias, and Nicholas Pellegrini, acting as the
couple’s attorney, negotiated with representatives of Sacred Heart
Academy and ultimately won a commitment from the school to buy the
property for $925,000 — an amount that would have been enough to repay
the Atias’ debts to the bank.
Instead, the defendants allegedly conspired to induce Bank of America
to agree to a short sale of the Cathedral Avenue property. Short sales
are an alternative to lengthier and often costly foreclosure
proceedings. In a short sale, a bank agrees to accept whatever price a
defaulting borrower can get on the immediate or short sale of a property
in foreclosure. As the bank did here, lenders may also release the
borrower from any obligation to repay any remaining balances owed on the
original mortgage or loans.
Knowing that Sacred Heart Academy had already agreed to buy the
Cathedral Avenue home for $925,000, the defendants nonetheless induced
Bank of America to agree to a short sale of the house for only $480,000
to Jefferson Real Property Corporation, whose secretary and treasurer
was defendant Nicholas Pellegrini’ s wife. As part of their agreement
with the bank, Mrs. Pellegrini, using the name Paula Berckhoff, and Mrs.
Atias, both falsely represented that neither would receive any
undisclosed proceeds from the transaction and further claimed that the
short sale was not an attempt to “flip” or use “straw buying” to avoid
repayment of Atias’ debt.
In fact, as charged in the indictment, several months after the
fraudulent short sale, the Atiases and Pellegrinis did re-sell or “flip”
the Cathedral Avenue home to Sacred Heart Academy for the previously
agreed price of $925,000. Given the fraudulent inducement to accept the
short sale, Bank of America was defrauded of almost $540,000.
“Through a web of lies and false documents, the defendants took
advantage of a school’s desires to improve its students’ athletic
facilities, lied to win concessions from a bank, and then lied again by
‘flipping’ the property and defrauding the bank of over half a million
dollars. This is not a case about tough bargaining. This is fraud, pure
and simple,” stated United States Attorney Lynch.
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Venizelos stated, “As alleged in the
indictment, while the defendants did not brandish a weapon, they stole
over half a million dollars from Bank of America based upon their false
misrepresentations and filing of false documents with the victim-lender.
Bank fraud burdens lenders with bad loans and weakens our financial
markets. Individuals who engage in this criminal activity should be
reminded that they will be vigorously investigated and held
accountable.”

Thursday, July 17, 2014

A six-count indictment was unsealed this morning in federal court in
Brooklyn charging mortgage broker Alex Barrett, property manager
Barthelemy Adjavehoude, title agent Michelle Baker, property manager and
self-described foreclosure specialist James Bayfield, and property
managers Samuel Terrell Bell and Dirk Hall with engaging in a bank and
wire fraud conspiracy to steal millions of dollars from financial
lending institutions.1 Defendants Adjavehoude, Baker, Bayfield, and Bell
were arrested and will be arraigned this afternoon before United States
Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom at the United States Courthouse in
Brooklyn, New York. The defendants face penalties of up to 30 years’
imprisonment if convicted.
The charges were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States
Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; George Venizelos,
Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York
Field Office (FBI); Michael Stephens, Acting Inspector General, Federal
Housing Finance Agency, Office of Inspector General (FHFA-OIG);
Christina Scaringi, Special Agent-in-Charge, Northeast Region, U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General
(HUD-OIG); and Derek Evans, Special Agent-in- Charge, Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation-Office of Inspector General, New York Region.

The Justice Department, along with federal and state partners, today
announced a $7 billion settlement with Citigroup Inc. to resolve federal
and state civil claims related to Citigroup’s conduct in the packaging,
securitization, marketing, sale and issuance of residential
mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) prior to Jan. 1, 2009. The resolution
includes a $4 billion civil penalty—the largest penalty to date under
the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act
(FIRREA). As part of the settlement, Citigroup acknowledged it made
serious misrepresentations to the public—including the investing
public—about the mortgage loans it securitized in RMBS. The resolution
also requires Citigroup to provide relief to underwater homeowners,
distressed borrowers and affected communities through a variety of means
including financing affordable rental housing developments for
low-income families in high-cost areas. The settlement does not absolve
Citigroup or its employees from facing any possible criminal charges.
This settlement is part of the ongoing efforts of President Obama’s
Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force’s RMBS Working Group, which has
recovered $20 billion to date for American consumers and investors.